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“So that’s how I found out the room was being used as a storeroom.”
“You can’t go doing dangerous things alone!”

When I told the three of them—who had woken up after a short rest—that I had opened the sealed room to check what was inside, Sufi got really mad at me.

She scolded me with the most reasonable logic possible: we didn’t know what might be in there, so I should’ve stayed away. What if something dangerous had happened?

“I’m sorry…”
“Hmph!!”
“This room smells like an old guy, nya.”
“It really does. Maybe a man was using it.”

While I hung my head, getting scolded by Sufi on the sofa, I could hear Noche and Filia whispering to each other as they peeked into the Western-style room.

Those two had better noses than I did, so they could tell more clearly. If a Japanese man heard what they said, he’d probably be pretty devastated.

“There’s only one bed, nya… can we use this as our sleeping place, nya?”
“This blanket feels so nice to touch.”

As I watched their ears and tails twitching with curiosity while they peeked into the next room, Sufi’s puffed-up, mochi-like face suddenly filled my view.

“Are you listening!?”
“I am! I’m sorry!”
“Anyway, let’s go to the ‘storeroom’? Nya.”

Just when I was about to fall into the lecture loop, Noche’s timely interjection saved me. Thanks to her, I was spared the lecture hell, and ended up being piggybacked by Sufi on the way to the storeroom.

Apparently, Noche had judged that I wouldn’t survive the lecture long enough to make it to the inspection. She was absolutely right.

“This… wooden box, nya?”
“It’s paper.”

Cardboard counts as paper, right? Whatever.

Carnivorous beastfolk had sharper claws than normal humans. Not as sharp as actual beasts, but sharp enough to slice through tape if they wanted.

Sufi set me down close by, and I tried to drag one of the boxes toward me… drag… drag…

“Here.”
“Thanks…”

My dependable big sister dragged one out for me, and I opened the top with my claws.

As expected, inside were supplies—pouches of ready-to-eat food and snacks, all packed tight. I’d forgotten to check the date…

Judging by the condition, it didn’t look like much time had passed—maybe a few months at most. That should be fine, probably…

Opening a bar-shaped nutritional snack from Noah Corporation, a pleasant roasted-grain aroma spread out.

Sniff sniff. Nothing smelled off. Plain flavor, no cacao or onion-type ingredients—should be safe.

“Ah.”

Taking a bite, gentle sweetness spread through my mouth along with the flavor of wheat. It was a nostalgic taste—I’d had a bit of something like this before.

If I had to choose, I preferred chewy rice-flour snacks, but I liked this Western-style one too.

As I swallowed and nodded, I noticed Sufi and the others staring at me with wide-open mouths.

“Ng… If nothing happens in ten minutes, it’s fine.”
“That’s not the point!! Why is the weakest one doing the poison test!!”
“You’re just… nya…”

I tried explaining that, since I was the weakest and couldn’t move anyway, I was the most suitable for testing—but that only made her even angrier. Why?

After receiving the “Take better care of yourself!” big-sister order and waiting ten minutes, the safety was confirmed, and the portable food was a huge hit with everyone.

“Yum! What’s this, nya? So good!”
“It’s so sweet! Is this sugar!?”

Well, refined sugar was practically unobtainable now, and good-quality wheat wasn’t easy to get either. These snacks were made by grinding various vegetables into powder to ensure minimum vitamins and calories—and still tasted great. Perfect for our situation.

As we filled our bellies, we continued sorting through the contents.

The retort pouches needed date checks, the others were medical kits—antiseptics, bandages, and so on. There were plenty of snacks too, though we didn’t know yet if they were all edible.

It’d take time to open everything, but there might even be a change of clothes among them.

It felt a little wrong to take things, but given the circumstances, we had to make use of them.

“…Sorry, Sufi. I won’t do it again.”
“Mhm!”

After finishing the inspection, I apologized again to Sufi, who was glaring at me half-lidded and crunching snacks. She nodded, satisfied, and I quietly sighed.

I didn’t think of poison testing as a dangerous act, but it was hard to get her to understand…

■■■

After tidying up, I returned to the Western-style room, adjusted the chair height, and sat in front of the computer.

Target: password crack.

0123… no good.
qwerty… of course not.

Maybe a birthday? But with the Noah Corp logo, this had to be company-issued.

“Hmm…”

I leaned back in the chair, glancing around the desk for hints.

……Huh, there’s a sticky note under the tabletop. With a string of letters and numbers on it.

No way. Just because the place is secure doesn’t mean… Come on. I peeled it off and typed the password.

Ah. It worked.

“Great management system we’ve got here…”

As the screen changed, an unfinished text document appeared.

‘Leaving this record just in case.
Those Atlantis sorcerers have summoned a freaking “Old God.”
Their goal is probably to seize the Beloved Child.

The units near Sector 0 are wiped out. I barely made it here using a key I found.
No comrades left. Sasahara and Kaji are dead, turned into monsters by the so-called divine soldiers’ blood.

They plan to use the Beloved Child as a bargaining chip to negotiate with the Ancient Gods.
It’s beyond reckless, but it seems that the *child* really is special to the godly beings.
Even the ragged old man who called himself God—who showed no emotion over anything—went half-mad when *that* incident happened.
That must be what convinced the Atlantis sorcerers to take action.
That’s probably why they launched such an insane assault that could destroy the surface.
How many more sacrifices will they pile up for their delusion of reviving the continent of Atlantis?

Thanks to a sentient Unknown cooperating with us, we’re holding out for now—but it’s only a matter of time before they break through.
The last report I got said the Beloved Child and the escort unit Escatos went underground in Sector 0.
Maybe they have a plan. Us lower agents weren’t told anything.
Does Bernhardt know something? Leaving it to that shady German just feels wrong.

Enough rambling. Once I upload this, I’m going out to look for survivors.
I pray that as many as possible make it ouipwp;igjna’

…The text ended abruptly there. A sudden mistyped line like that—did something happen before he could fix it?

But the room didn’t show any signs of struggle. The coat was torn in places, but that was it.

It was as if the person had just vanished. Creepy.

Still… “underground,” huh.

I did remember being attacked by some kind of sorcerers that day, and heading underground with the Captain and the others. Faintly, but the memory is there.

The “ragged old man” I remembered too—one of the three strange humanlike beings I met at the facility.

A cheerful young humanoid man, a woman with a kind voice who’d always bring snacks, and the old man in rags.

Others said the first two looked like a handsome caucasian man and a beautiful asian woman, but to me they were a bundle of red-rusty wires and a reddish-brown mass of flesh respectively. If I tried to mention it, they’d just smile and go “shhh.”¹　

The ragged old man was the only one who looked the same to everyone—but the moment he saw me, he burst into tears and kept saying “thank you.” That left me with a lasting discomfort.

Back then, even Kuro—who was with me—looked openly disgusted, so we stopped interacting after that.

Anyway, I remembered that things upstairs had gotten pretty chaotic too.

“—Ow…”

A sharp pain shot through my temple. For a moment, an image of guards aiming their guns at grotesque, warped humans flashed in my mind.

…I almost remembered, but not quite. Frustrating.

“Alice, you have to go to bed now.”
“Ah, okay.”

Time’s up—Sufi was calling. I shook my head and, resisting the dizziness, got off the chair and went to the next room. The futons were laid out, and the three of them were playing a hand game.

“Sword, Shield, and Bow”—basically rock-paper-scissors.

“What are you doing?”
“Deciding who’s on watch!”

Ah, right. The door was still wide open. We really needed a sturdier one; the earthen one we made wasn’t reliable enough.

“Should I do it—”

Then I realized something. I hadn’t done a single watch duty since coming here. Feeling guilty, I raised my hand a little.

“…?”
“Um, Alice, well…”

Sufi tilted her head at me like I was saying something ridiculous, and Filia struggled to find words.

“Keep your nonsense to yourself, nya.”

Noche’s snort of laughter sealed it. Right—if I joined the watch, it’d just turn into nursing duty.

“Good night.”
“Yeah! You kids sleep now, nya!”
“Good night!!”
“Um, Alice, you’ve been really helpful, okay? Don’t feel bad, okay?”

As I slipped past Sufi and Noche—who still couldn’t finish their game because they read each other’s moves too well—I flopped onto the futon.

With one hand raised to acknowledge Filia’s forced cheer-up, I sulked and went to sleep.